What's an entrepreneur to do when investors back out in the
middle of an $80 million-plus construction project? Jack Gray, 48,
knows the answer from firsthand experience. Gray's Austin,
Texas, company, Gigared, was building a 1,100-kilometer-long
telecommunications network in Argentina when his American VC
investors abruptly backed out in September 2001--still $6 million
shy of completing their investment.

Gray scrambled to renegotiate terms with vendors and debtors,
invested more of his own money, and looked for new VC investors. By
offering a greatly reduced stock price, Gray received enough in new
investments to complete the build-out. With 2005 revenue expected
to top $5 million, Gigared is once again in the black.

Says Gray, "When you get burned that badly, you want to
have someone you know you can trust. That's a huge component of
picking a VC partner."